Tech's post-season run ends in Jackson, JSU Gamecocks take OVC Tournament title

May 30, 2010

JACKSON, Tenn. – It was a rainy day with dry bats Sunday
at Pringles Park for the Tennessee Tech Golden Eagles as they faced
off against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks to determine the 2010
Ohio Valley Conference Tournament Champions.

In the double elimination tournament, Tech had already
shouldered a 9-7 loss from Jacksonville State in a game Saturday,
making Sunday's game a must-win for the Golden Eagles. A victory
would have instigated an “if necessary” tie-breaker
game between the two teams to determine the overall champion.

Unfortunately, game two was not necessary as the Golden Eagles'
eight runs on 11 hits from five different batters were not enough
to trump the Gamecocks, who mustered 18 hits for 10 runs off
four Tech pitchers.

Just as they had done on Saturday, the Golden Eagles -- playing
as the visiting team for the first time in the tournament -- jumped
out in front of Jacksonville State for an early 4-0 lead after a
scoreless first inning. Five Golden Eagle players combined for four
runs off five base hits against starter Aaron Elias to take the 4-0
lead over the Gamecocks in the top of the second.

The Gamecocks responded with one run on one hit and an error in
the bottom of the inning, but didn't really work freshman
right-hander Tristan Archer
until the following inning.

Right-handed pitcher Elias retired three of the next four Tech
batters in the top of the third inning to bring up Bert Smith,
Jacksonville's No. 2 hitter, who was later named the tournament
MVP. Smith started a Gamecock rally with a double to right center
field. Steven Leach contributed an RBI double and catcher Andrew
Edge homered to knot the game at four-all. Another double by Kyle
Bluestein brought Chason Choate in to
the game with nobody out in relief of Archer. JSU worked Choate for
one more run with one out off of a triple by Sam Eberle before he
could induce two more groundouts to end the inning.

Jacksonville State earned two more runs in the fourth inning off
of Choate and Stephen Pryor to
command a 7-4 lead before Tech could respond in the top of the
fifth. Ironically, the five batters who facilitated the scoring in
the second inning for the Golden Eagles would remain the only
batters to get hits over the course of the rest of the game.

Ben Burgess
added his second hit of the game in the fifth inning off of
reliever Tanner Freshour, and Jacksonville State logged an error
and walked Chad Oberacker home with the bases loaded to put two
more runs on the board for Tech. Unfortunately, the 7-6 game
quickly turned into a 9-6 game when the Gamecocks responded with
two runs in the bottom of the inning.

AJ Kirby-Jones threatened to start another rally in the sixth
inning, hitting his 26th home run of the season off of
sidearm pitcher Alex Jones, scoring two runs to bring the Golden
Eagles within one, 9-8.

A 122-minute rain delay caused both teams to pack it away after
seven complete innings, but both pitchers were relentless upon
resumption. Lee
Henry, having relieved Pryor in the bottom half of the sixth,
allowed only one unearned run in three innings to hold the game to
two runs after having pitched a complete game Thursday night. Jones
allowed Burgess and Frankie Beech
another hit apiece, but did not allow another run.

Burgess went 3-for-5 on the day with one RBI, while AJ
Kirby-Jones brought in three runs on a 2-for-4 effort. In addition
to Beech's two hits, Austin Wulf and Tate McMillan
also added a pair of hits each for Tech.

The Gamecocks left 10 men stranded on base in comparison to
Tech's eight men left on, but only logged one error on the game
while Tech put up three. All seven of the Golden Eagle's errors in
the tournament came against Jacksonville State.

Archer was charged with the loss for Tech, bringing his record
to 3-2 to finish the season. Freshour pitched 3 1/3 innings to earn
the win for the Gamecocks and improve to 6-1.

Five Golden Eagle players were named to the OVC all-tournament
team. Burgess, Oberacker,
Kirby-Jones, Beech and Henry all accepted medals post-game as Tech
representatives of the all-tournament team.